A firmer euro after the central bank intervention on Friday and easier oil prices helped to push stock prices higher across Europe. In Dublin, technology shares were helped by the recovery in the TMT sector while the generally more favourable mood helped bank shares bound ahead. Turnover was modest, however, apart from some sizeable trading in Bank of Ireland in London.
Bank shares had their best day for some time and AIB jumped 25 cents to #10.85 while Bank of Ireland was 25 cents higher on #7.75. Irish Life was 15 cents higher on #10.70 after disclosing that it bought back another 530,000 shares on Friday at prices between #10.55 and #10.70.
CRH was 12 cents higher on #17.95 despite being downgraded from "outperformer" to "performer" by Goldman Sachs. Market sources in Dublin found the Goldman Sachs evaluation of CRH difficult to fathom with a view on the home market that CRH is due at least as good a rating as Goldman's European favourite, Lafarge.
Reports of a France Telecom investment might have been dismissed by both companies, but Eircom was boosted by the better demand for TMT stocks and closed 10 cents higher on #2.50. Greencore was five cents higher on #2.90, while Green fell 25 cents to #6.65 on news that the management team had abandoned plans for a buyout.
Most technology shares were well ahead on the day, with strong performances by Parthus and Baltimore in London, Trintech on the Neuer and Nasdaq, while the entire flock of Irish techies was trading well ahead by midday on Nasdaq.
